I'm such a hypocrite

There I said it. Admitting it is the first step, right?

You see, I have zero problems dishing out my opinions on a variety of topics, but watch out if I do something that contradicts one of my previous public rants. I have so many rants it's hard to just choose one, but this time I'm specifically talking about shoes.

In a nutshell, I have chastised some of my female friends over the years for buying cute athletic shoes and then complaining about how they weren't all that comfortable. Insert me going on a massive rant here that covers everything from how that's stupid to how that's really stupid.

Foot. mouth. done.

Last month on a trip to the Leesburg Outlets with my bestie, B, I knowingly bought a pair of uncomfortable athletic shoes.


Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

In my defense, if I'm allowed one, I didn't buy them because they were "cute." Rather, I purchased them in a somewhat pathetic hope that by suffering pain in the interim, I would actually feel less pain in the long run. Yeah, I read "Born to Run" and while I don't plan on rocking the Five Fingered look anytime soon, I do admit that there's probably a bit too much cushioning in my running shoes. I'm starting to run more in preparation for a half-marathon and I'm already starting to fear that first step in the morning.

What happens if the pain comes back? If it comes back then notions like, "needles, "orthotics," "lasers," and "physical therapy" might come into my life and if there's one thing I know, I'm not a fan of doctors and I'm definitely a pansy when it comes to needles. I tried to limp out of the podiatrist's office when he wanted to give me a cortisone shot last September.

So, I plunked down $55 bones for these Nike Free Hyper Trainers. I hate that everyone tells me they're cute. No, they're badass, they used to hurt to walk in and still hurt to run in. However, last night I ran 4 miles in them and finally felt good. Maybe there is hope for me after all.

These shoes are part of the whole "running barefoot" movement. They're a minimalist shoe designed to mimic the individual's natural gait, which really boils down to running on the balls of your feet more and not striking with your heel first. My pathetic hope is that these might help build up some foot strength and that will cut down on the amount of fluid that can build up in my foot. The fluid buildup is what causes the pain aka plantar fasciiitis.

I'm eating my words and wearing uncomfortable athletic shoes. I'm going to give them another month and keep trying to get in shorter runs in to see if that helps with any of the pain. I really don't want to go back to that crazy foot doctor!

In the meantime, I'm wearing them every day on my walk to and from work and whenever I walk my pups. I have gotten a ton of compliments on them because they are badass. Although, every time someone says they are, "cute" I want to cringe. Hopefully, I can get over that pain as well.

Our first apartment

In February the hubs and I took a quick weekend trip up to Atlantic City, NJ to cheer on one of our friends who is an aspiring UFC fighter. On the way up the shore we met with our real estate agent for our first big meeting and then decided to stop for lunch in Newark, DE. Being that I went to grad school at the University of Delaware, I wanted to poke around Main Street and see if anything had changed in the past few years (it had!).

On our trip, we drove by our old apartment complex, the site of our first step into cohabitation. Also the site where the hubs firmly entrenched himself in the, "I'll spend the rest of my life with you and share everything, except for the hamper" weird stance that he has going on. More importantly, our old apartment complex is completely different. When we lived there it was a sketchy place of regular ol' folks and poor college students, complete with a murderous backstory. Seriously, a female student was murdered there the year before we moved in (hence why we got two dogs ASAP, jk) and we found out later watching Animal Planet that years ago another resident was eaten by his illegal giant lizards. SWEET!!!

Now the complex is "Green" and is solely off-campus housing for students. It also has this massive community center with a full-length basketball course, 3-D private screening room, bar, and tanning beds. Clearly the Jersey Shore influence has migrated south into Newark!

It was kind of a throwback for the hubs and I to think of that first apartment and how the only new pieces of furniture we bought when we moved in were a tv stand, coffee table, kitchen table & chairs, and a breakfast table. They all came from Ikea and the breakfast table doubled as a great beer pong table. Yeah, that's how grad school rolls. The rest of our furniture was all hand-me-downs or leftovers from college.

Here's the floor plan for that old 855 square foot apartment.

Don't let the floor plan fool you. There was no way in heck a dining table fit in the "dining area." We kept the table over in the "study." However, the kitchen was just as tiny as it looked. We couldn't have our microwave, toaster, and coffee pot all plugged in at the same time.

It wasn't a total waste. Jax actually ate a 6 x 6 inch hole right dab in the middle of the living room carpet. I patched the spot, extremely poorly, with carpet from the closet and then replaced the carpet in the closet with the closest Berber carpet I could find at Home Depot. Then, the apartment complex still gave us the pet deposit back after we moved out! After all of the disgusting things we saw while we lived there, I'm not surprised if we weren't "tenants of the year."

It kind of sucks to look back at it because everything in the apartment itself was new, so it could have been a really nice place. However, the sketchy people living next door, their annoying 50lb mutt who attacked Jewels, and most people's total disregard for common decency made the place into a dump. It's funny to see it now.

I tell you what, the pool certainly did NOT look like that when we were there!

Miles run in March

25.58

I think that officially classifies me as the non-running runner. I'm going to have to get over my hatred of the treadmill because I'm scheduled to go to Detroit for work for a few days every three weeks for the next three months. Plus, running around Detroit at 9:30 at night doesn't sound like the greatest of ideas. Running around any city at that hour in the night doesn't sound like a good idea.

Okay, I also need to stop having excuses for skipping a run, "it's cold outside, I'm tired, I've been up since 5:30am, I'll run tomorrow night, etc."

Any Detroit folks recommend any other restaurants than the 24 Grille at the Westin? Don't get me wrong, it's a great place, but I might get tired of eating there every dinner I'm in the Motor City.